Modern America is facing a crisis of love. Divorce, cohabitation, sexually transmitted diseases—all of these are components of this crisis. Increasingly common, premarital sex is the root of these problems. Just as pleasure is overwhelming love, so too is extramarital sex destroying stable relationships. To restore balance and love to America, we must address the issue of premarital sex.
According to recent university surveys, couples who have sex before marriage are twice as likely to have a divorce. What is intended for love ends in hate; what is meant for eternity lasts for only a few years. Premarital sex causes this division. Recent surveys by Advocates for Youth show that almost 10 percent of students have had sex before age 13. Such young, innocent children risk developing diseases in middle school. Besides these surveys, there is another reason for premarital virginity. Why not strive for complete self-giving? What is more romantic, more beautiful, than giving one’s entire self to another, rather than having only pieces to offer?
Opponents of abstinence believe sex is part of deciding to marry someone. Ignoring circumstances, they also claim sexual pleasure is always good. These ideas reduce love to sex and sex to pleasure. Misguided, these people consider others objects of gratification and deny the intimate sacrifice of love present in sex. If sex is casual recreation, no love holds a couple together; if it is a sacred, mystical union, two truly join in love.
The best alternative to premarital sex is abstinence. Like chastity, abstinence prevents the gift of human sexuality from being given inappropriately. It leads to happy marriages. Someone who practices chastity does not regard sex as a dirty, unavoidable evil. On the contrary, he or she recognizes the beautiful sanctity of sex. Because of the great discipline needed to practice it, abstinence may be difficult to live. The physical and spiritual rewards, however, outweigh the temptations.
Divorce rates continue to rise. Sexually transmitted diseases are pandemics. The damage to love deepens. To combat these issues, people must respond to the hope of chastity and abstinence. Premarital sex continues to threaten sacrificial love and sexual intimacy, the foundation of stable marriages, the bedrock of stable society. If we respond to the natural desire for exclusively marital sex, the crisis of love will become a celebration of love. America and the world must listen to the internal call to chastity—the internal call to real love.